The City of Lakewood is considering expanding its Multi-Family Tax Exemption (MFTE) program, a policy that could significantly reshape the character of our community in specific parts of Gravelly Lake Drive and unspecified parts of Oakbrook, Springbrook and Tillicum. The Lakewood Planning Commission, which advises the City Council, is holding a public hearing on Feb. 19 at 6:30 p.m., and your voice is crucial.
What’s at stake?
The proposed expansion would offer property tax breaks to developers and landowners building apartments in areas where small businesses thrive. This policy could now extend to other commercial districts beyond ‘downtown.’
The city hasn’t said where specifically they want to target small business or vacant parcels in Oakbrook, Springbrook and Tillicum. I have more on that in the second half of this post. I wanted to get the ‘action item’ up high for you.
These are just some of the small businesses targeted by the Gravelly Lake proposal, which was originally meant to benefit a developer at the southern boundary of the extension.
And as a bonus, the tax exemption creates a financial incentive for Pierce County to put housing on the former site of the downtown Lakewood library.
Why Should You Care?
I mean, what kind of city do you want? Do you want to drive up and down Gravelly Lake and just see box apartments? Maybe you do – more housing is more housing. We could pack entire blocks with eight-story apartments and JBLM alone would still need more housing.
- Impacts on Neighborhoods: The tax break would encourage the redevelopment of small business properties into housing, reshaping key parts of the city.
- Who Really Benefits? Developers and large property owners stand to gain, but what about small businesses and residents?
- A Fair Process? The city did not directly notify affected property owners last year. The only people who showed up at the first hearing were developers. Have you received any notification? Do you care?
How to Make Your Voice Heard
Attend in Person: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025, Lakewood City Hall, across from the Barnes & Noble apartment site (I could use the street address, but I want to honor that City Hall is all about apartments now)
Submit Written Comments: Send to the city by noon, Feb. 19. Mail testimony in advance to Karen Devereaux, Planning Commission Clerk, 6000 Main Street SW, Lakewood, WA, 98499 or email kdevereaux@cityoflakewood.us.
Join via Zoom to Speak: The city will be posting the link soon, and I’ll share it here on The Suburban Times; or we’ll also post it on the Save Our Unique Lakewood website.
Watch on YouTube: Livestream available, though you can’t make public comments. Same thing, the link will be TBA but on the city’s YouTube channel.
This is your chance to weigh in before the Planning Commission makes a recommendation to the City Council. If you care, you should also come to the meeting where they will likely make decisions, that same time on March 5.
If you care about the future of small businesses, neighborhoods, and responsible growth in Lakewood, speak up before decisions are made without you!
Background
OK, for those of you who crave insights and more information, here’s a bit more:
Big picture: It’s been illuminating to learn what is going on in the entire State of Washington related to housing. You may have seen the majestic David Horsey cartoon that summarizes what’s going on in Seattle. The short version is that progressives and housing developers, who don’t always have things in common, have united to push as many houses they can in as many places throughout the state. I’ll be writing about the state issues in the coming weeks.
However, let’s not get distracted. It’s not the state that wants to provide this tax incentive in certain neighborhoods.
Here’s where we’ve been, in review:
- Last spring, Lakewood failed to directly notify property owners so the only people to show up last year at the planning commission hearing were the developers. A divided planning commission voted to recommend the tax break.
- The neighborhood did find out, and after citizens asked for reconsideration, the Lakewood City Council asked the planning commission to have another public hearing.
- The planning commission held a study session last month and a public hearing was already scheduled for Feb. 5.
- The short version of what happened; the planning commissioners asked A LOT of good questions and the city took the remarkable step of canceling a public hearing they’d already begun to advertise.
I had actually written out a column about how the planning commissioners were taking their time and city staff were clearly going to take their time putting something together – but you won’t be reading that as it turned out they decided to just give it one month. So the planning commission held another meeting this past Wednesday, and decided to hold a hearing in two weeks.
I have seen no evidence that the City of Lakewood has sent a mailing to the neighborhood, but there’s still time and they might well do so.
For Oakbrook, Springbrook and Tillicum
The City Council, Planning Commission and City Hall are also proposing to extend the same incentive to new parts of these neighborhoods. The city’s maps are confusing because they don’t actually specify what areas that would happen. So if you live in those neighborhoods, you might come to the hearing to express an opinion either way.
To put it another way, I sure hope Oakbrook, Springbrook and Tillicum have people who compulsively read city agendas like I do. The city did not notify my neighborhood about the change, no surprise since the city wants the change to happen.
But that means it’s likely nobody will tell neighbors in Oakbrook, Springbrook and Tillicum when it comes time to designate specific parcels for the incentive.
It’s Not Supposed to Work This Way
In case you’re wondering, this is not the way it’s supposed to work. You’re not supposed to rely on a private citizen like me who just happens to read agendas to get information on zoning and development tax incentives in your neighborhood.
Cityhood promised that Lakewood citizens would be informed on what’s coming, and that doesn’t always happen late in the third decade of cityhood. So here we are.
If you live in these areas, you might make more sense of the maps than I can. Here they are:
Oakbrook map
Springbrook map
Tillicum map
You have to inform yourselves, friends. Civics is not a spectator sport.
And finally … more information if you want it.
I am also the first person to say you should not rely on one person for your information. So here are some resources:
First Hearing
You know this is coming, but I have to say it: If you really want to know what’s going on, you should watch the hearing.
Only one neighbor provided public testimony in person, I think in part because some of us only saw the meeting notice the day before and there wasn’t time to get the word out. But Christina Klas spoke for a large group of people:
You can also hear me encourage the planning commissioners to do what they want to do, and not be pushed by friendly associations with staff and City Council members already in favor of displacing small business:
Second Hearing
You can watch it and hear some interesting comments https://www.youtube.com/live/1gTYBNVJoMg?si=fpB3Qdok0g7cQp7O&t=210
You’ll find the staff report here: https://cityoflakewood.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2025_02_05_PC_Agenda.pdf
Just so you know, it’s likely the planning commission won’t make a decision on the night of the 19th, so you’ll also want to write down 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 5. There will also be a public comment hearing at that meeting before they might make a recommendation to the City Council.
There is an enormous amount of activity going on in Washington related to housing, as the Horsey cartoon indicates. Even as we speak, the Legislature is working on bills that mandate what goes in not only my neighborhood, but every other neighborhood in a city.
But this tax incentive is the thing the city has kept pumping air in, so it will be good to get a final decision so we can focus on bigger state issues. To me, what happens on Gravelly Lake Drive symbolizes how a city addresses responsible development and growth. It will be interesting to hear from others. If you have any questions for me, you’ll find my contact information on the Save Our Unique Lakewood website.
Thank you, Walter, for sharing the details and choices available on what I see as the City’s bias towards housing, at the expense of the area’s character and livability. Too often, there’s usually really no choice for the common folk because the process favors developers and cramming in more people for the expanding tax base they represent. I do see it as a crime when small businesses are squeezed to the point of being eliminated, and when they go the human-scale buildings they occupy go as well. There is an eye-opening abundance of empty lots and decaying empty buildings that should be redeveloped first. We can only hope that future approved developments are not so darned ugly and cheaply built.
A tax reduction or exemption for one is a tax increase for the rest of us.
Absolutely!
What good does it do to voice counter opinions when the powers that be are deaf and blind to the “common” man? As we see everywhere $ talks and and the rest of us peons pay, and pay, and pay.
Lakewood is no longer a pleasant small city. Corporate greed rules the city. I’m fed up with the way it’s being run.
I would be interested in learning how elimination of trees which exist in proposed areas of redevelopment would be justified by local law–unless, of course, developers are given special consideration. Current city law dictates draconian regulations on private citizens’ ability to control the number and type of trees on their residential property.
Walter Neary,
You are a Lakewood hero. Thank you, ever so much, for trying to get the word out so Lakewood citizens might be able to save Lakewood from a developmental greed force inspired by a destructive and misguided tax incentive.
While I realize readers may push back on what I am going to say next, I feel compelled to share my warning. I am standing with you Walter Neary.
Fifty-six years ago I purchased an attractive clinkerbrick duplex in Lakewood, moving into the owner’s suite in 1969. Eight years later we moved into an amazing Lakewood home on Clover Creek very close to where one of the city’s proposed property kill zones is located.
The neighborhood was developed by Emilio James Zarelli, the same man who built the Villa Plaza (Lakewood Mall) in circa 1950. It has always been a paradise. It is sad to see it is about to be destroyed.
We always loved and enjoyed Lakewood because of the way it was set up with trees, large and small businesses, and positive traffic patterns.
First allow me to share my credentials that make my following comments more credible.
CREDENTIALS:
(1) I was a rental tenant my first 3 years of marriage in a 6-plex. Even though it was a quality brick 6-plex in a quiet North Tacoma neighborhood, because it was a rental property, there was drama. In one incident as a first floor tenant, I had to run upstairs to help the college language professor, who lived above, as she was being harassed and physically threatened by an unwanted guest in the middle of the night. Police were called to the scene to eject the suspect. That is what I call the ant hill phenomenon.
(2) My first home purchase was a Lakewood duplex. As a landlord, especially living in the building, I cared about not having any trouble makers living in my rental for my sake and the sake of my neighbors. I did two things to promote peace and harmony. I vetted my rental applicants and I enforced the rules along with being willing to evict any problem tenant.
I had a series of good tenants. I am still friends with some of my duplex tenants. Renters are not all bad people, but renters can be and frequently are trouble makers.
(3) At my peak as a real estate investor, I owned 40 rentals, with 4 or more located in Lakewood. My rental inventory included single family, duplex, tri-plex, 4-plex, and mixed use buildings.
I made it a practice to contact the neighbors of my rental properties to introduce myself. I provided the neighbos with a business card which included my name and phone number. I instructed the neighbors to call me, even if it were 4:00a in the morning if one of my renters was causing a problem. While I did not live in the neighborhood, after my first duplex, I considered myself to be a good neighbor which meant being responsible for eradicating any neighborhood problems eminating from one of my rental properties.
(4) I owned a real estate property management company located in Lakewood. We managed 450 rental properties in Pierce County.
(5) I served 25 years in law enforcement, including a number of years in Lakewood.
(6) I experienced numerous tenant evictions both as a civilian investor and as a police officer.
(7) I was a certified Crime Free Rental Housing instructor with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Deparment including when we served The City of Lakewood.
Based on my education and life experience, here is what I know.
(1) The residential rental business often is a dirty business.
Why is that?
(A) If you stack large numbers of people into one place even just a 4-plex and it gets worse for 50 units or more, the rental property becomes an ant hill of trouble.
(B) While there are many excellent citizens who elect to rent rather than own, any time you have an ant hill in your neighborhood, you are going to be surrounded by losers. I guarantee it.
Genearlly a loser is an individual who makes poor deccisions about their education, employment, violation of the Ten Commandments, dope, booze, criminal activity, and money management.
(C) Absentee / out of state rental property owners generally do not care about you or your safety. If you are lucky to get an excellent property owner that does care, things change over night when the current owner sells.
(D) Police will be coming into your neighborhood 24 hours a day. Some nights you will not be able to sleep.
(E) Junk cars, garbage, and deferred maintenance will plague the neighborhood you once loved.
(F) You may end up with a slum lord who does nothing and spends no money to be a good neighbor to you.
To any Lakewood citizen who lives in a quiet neighborhood now, get ready to live in a Hell-hole if the City of Lakewood and the developers get their way.
The losers will commit crimes including vandalism, sex crimes, car prowls, car thefts, burglary, home invasion robbery, shootings resulting in injury and homicide and gang activity to name a few.
By now it should be obvious that it is my profound request that the Lakewood City Council do the right thing, the common sense thing, by not electing to destroy what has, to date, been a wonderful place to live.
Joseph Boyle – Former Lakewood Resident 52 Years
Oh, as I reread my comment above, including the accidental misspelling, I remembered one of the driving force reasons we moved out of our first Lakewood duplex.
Circa 1971 a developer built two new fourplexes two blocks away. Once the fourplexes were occupied there was nothing but hell to pay 24-7.
Our neigbborhood went from wonderful to horrible. It was not long livable.
Our quiet neighborhood went down the toilet.
I rest my case.
Joseph Boyle
The other piece we need to be looking at is the “Transit Money” the city staff seem overly concerned about losing. I think that is an additional factor driving this push for development, the buses…….”people in apartments will ride buses” yeah, right. Apartments close to transit stops keep the “Transit Money” flowing in for the city. Hope you don’t currently live by a bus stop because your neighborhood is the next target. The city wants that “Transit Money” but at an extreme expense to Lakewood Citizens and neighborhoods. Welcome to the future slums coming to every neighborhood in Lakewood very soon because our city staff and city council clearly can not see how this will play out.
It’s a very good question. Is it grant money used to repave perfectly fine roads because we got a grant? Or is this the money used to install roundabouts in order to install roundabouts or because every possible place to put a sidewalk is a place to put a sidewalk? Or – is this money for something we actually need, which could be very possible. That could be very possible. We don’t know, because citizens are the bottom feeders of information.
The bigger picture here is that I feel like somehow the city got the idea that it had to ‘take it’ in regards to housing from regional planning authorities and the legislature without involving citizens, and I think at least some of us would like to get involved. These are all great themes to explore. We don’t know what we don’t know.
One question I have is, have the businesses along Gravelly Lake/112th (near Clover Park High School been informed of this meeting? I feel very badly for these people, having made the effort to fill the spot of the former drug and grocery store there. One I know made the decision to open a shop here, having to decide to sell their home in another city, move here, buy a new home as well as invest in this new business and now be on the verge of having the space taken away. I’m sure they did not see this coming. Do they know of the meeting?
Also, is that why the places next to that building are no longer in business. Have they already been gobbled up by these developers?
Hi JoAnn, just in terms of immediacy, the tax exemption creates an incentive to turn multiple properties into housing, but I’m not aware of immediate plans to do so. I don’t know if the city informed business owners of the hearing about the incentive. I paid for and distributed leaflets door-to-door last spring when the idea first came up, and am in touch with business owners who expressed interest. So I made the offer then to help people keep track of what was going on.
In terms of Oakbrook, Springbrook and Tillicum, the city has not, to my knowledge, specified exact parcels, so it would be hard to notify anyone on those parcels. The city’s position, unless it’s changed, is that because we’re talking about a development incentive, and not a zoning change, they don’t have to notify people with, say, a postcard and map. But you’d have to ask the city if that’s still how they’re doing business with taxpayers.
Hi Walter, As a resident of Lakewood, on Wildaire Rd SW, since 1990, I thank you for the heads up on this issue . I most definitely concur with everything that Joseph B shared with us. As retired military and state corrections I do know the adverse outcomes of housing developments. If this proposal goes through, as a property owner , assuredly our property value will decrease while property tax and crime will increase. Renters as a general rule have no skin the game and have no real connection to the overall neighborhood they live in. As suggestion, if you have no better idea, make this property a park before you create an urban cesspool. If this proposal goes through be rest assured this resident will sell. Thank you again.